The Hands that Move the World

Starpeaks Invasion

The Starpeaks Invasion was an event on Olraune 1, 1000 YK, in which a number of armies gathered as the “Starpeaks Alliance” to preemptively strike at the devils of Baator, who were themselves preparing to invade Eberron.

Context

In 998 YK, the minor oni warlord Sojin Karral led his small group of followers to the Starpeaks, a mountain range in Thrane. Here, they broke into the Starpeaks Observatory, a site of academic interest to the Arcane Congress for its views of a night sky that did not resemble Eberron’s ordinary sky. Once inside, Karral had every scholar inside killed, and set about uncovering the Observatory’s secret: the night sky was different because it was influenced by the gate to Baator hidden in a vault at the Observatory’s heart.

Baator, somewhere between a true plane and a demiplane, was believed by some to be a divine prison of some sort, and the Starpeaks Gate marked its only point of access. Long before the establishment of the Observatory, the Gate had been sealed, prepared in such a way that if it were ever to be opened, it would have to be opened from the Eberron side. Sojin Karral, eager to expand his army and armed with a vague understanding of the warlike nature of devils, attempted to open the Starpeaks Gate, only to be thwarted by the Eclipse Collective. The Collective, however, lacked a complete understanding of the Gate’s nature at the time, and Stahlstrauss decided to investigate the Gate by putting his face through it while it was still in a half-open state.

What resulted was a window of time in which the gate was held open in anticipation of Stahlstrauss’ return, large enough that a powerful devil of a type called a malebranche (also called a “war devil”) escaped from Baator. The Collective, unable to defeat the malebranche in combat, fled the Observatory as Lucan Vrinsk d’Medani covered their retreat. The malebranche was able to drag Lucan into Baator and reverse the sealing on the Gate, such that it could only be opened from the Baator side. This gave the devils free reign on when the Gate would open again.

The Arcane Congress soon discovered that the devils were likely planning an invasion for the dawn of the year 1000 YK. The Eclipse Collective, being in no small part responsible, was entrusted with rallying forces with sufficient strength to repel or to stop the invasion. They traveled across Khorvaire, seeking allies among the continent’s nations and peoples.

The Invasion

Through considerable effort, the Arcane Congress discovered the date at which the devils were preparing to attack. The Starpeaks Alliance massed at site of the Observatory, which had been torn down in preparation. The Alliance decided to push inside, destabilize whatever was going to be used to hold the gate wide enough for an army to pass through and maintain the balance of the binding’s power on the devil’s side, and then pull back out, re-sealing the Gate behind them.

The Alliance suffered many casualties, and a number of forces were lost completely against the devils, but the Invasion itself was a success. The focal point of the binding ritual used to hold the gate opened by the devils was none other than Lucan Vrinsk himself, who was finally freed into death by the Eclipse Collective after they defeated Bel and Dispater, the two Archdukes of Baator responsible for the Invasion. Three other members of the Eclipse Collective, Tam’elanath Edroin d’Thuranni, Zan-kyri, and Cecil Morris Duran, were also lost in the fighting.

Forces Involved

The Brelish Devilkiller Legion, led by King Content Not Found: boranel-ir-wynarn